Location of rebel chief still a mystery

November 08, 2001|By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune staff reporter.

QUETTA, Pakistan — The efforts of opposition leader Hamid Karzai to rally anti-Taliban groups in southern Afghanistan and his reported rescue by U.S. forces this week illustrate the difficulties of challenging the regime in its stronghold.

Karzai's family members on Wednesday continued to deny U.S. confirmation that he had been plucked out of Afghanistan on Sunday. They are concerned that American claims of military assistance might hurt his mission. Meanwhile, questions remain over how much local support Karzai managed to muster during his four weeks in Afghanistan.

Karzai and hundreds of his supporters reportedly were attacked last Thursday by Taliban soldiers during a meeting of tribal leaders in Uruzgan province, near Kandahar. U.S. officials said they helped Karzai escape into nearby mountains by dispatching warplanes to the area for cover.

Then, on Sunday, American personnel flew Karzai and a core group of supporters and fighters out of Afghanistan to an undisclosed location, according to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Karzai had been in Afghanistan since Oct. 8 to call tribal leaders to a loya jirga, or tribal council, headed by exiled King Mohammed Zahir Shah. Karzai quietly sought support for a broad-based government.

Karzai's family has maintained that he survived the Taliban attack last week because of tribal influence. Members of the Popalzai tribe that Karzai heads and other Pashtun tribal leaders rallied around him and protected him, his relatives said. The family said he had up to 500 fighting men with him.

If there hadn't been support, the Taliban would have had no problem capturing him in a region that is the birthplace of spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, said Karzai's brother Ahmed, who lives in the southwest Pakistani town of Quetta.

Some Pashtun leaders in Pakistan, however, say Karzai's family is exaggerating reports of tribal backing.

"Popalzai is a very small tribe, and Karzai has no influence," said Sarwar Khan Kakar, a tribal elder of the Kakar tribe in Quetta and a former minister of a provincial assembly in Pakistan.

Ghulam Haider Nurazai, head of the Pashtun tribal Nurazais in Quetta and the border town of Chaman, had been saying for days that Karzai was in Pakistan's southwest region, long before Rumsfeld announced the U.S. mission to lift Karzai out of Afghanistan. Indeed, Nurazai insists Karzai never set foot in Afghanistan and instead has pocketed $5 million in U.S. aid.

The Karzai family denies it has received assistance from the United States. Any such mission linked to America would be difficult for Afghans to embrace, but U.S. officials have supported Karzai's attempt to lead a revolt in the south.

On Wednesday, mystery swirled over Karzai's whereabouts. For once both the United States and the Taliban seemed to agree on one thing--that Karzai was not inside Afghanistan.

Ahmed Karzai insisted his brother was still there and said that he had spoken twice with Hamid on Wednesday. But even some loya jirga supporters were not buying that account.

Mohamad Yousaf Pashtun, one of the loya jirga's key supporters, said he has heard from other members of the group that Karzai is back in Quetta. Unlike most supporters of the former king, Pashtun does not believe Karzai should have gone into Afghanistan on what he called a "suicidal mission."

Agreeing with U.S. accounts, Pashtun said Karzai had returned to Pakistan to consult with other members of the loya jirga, not because of fear of the Taliban.